First, happy birthday today to Hoyt, my extraordinary husband and love of my life. A few years ago, Hoyt and I visited Kells, a village in Ireland. Beautiful, green, moody, Ireland!
Here’s a gift from Ireland. You may know of the famous Book of Kells, an extraordinary version of the four Gospels with elegant and elaborate decorative illustrations. The original manuscripts are on display at Trinity College in Dublin, and we had the chance to see them. I wrote about that here ⇒ little blog.
Poetry celebrates Kells
The Irish poet, Eavan Boland, came to Orlando a few years ago, before I ever went to Ireland, and I heard her read at Valencia Community College. After listening to her powerful but soothing voice, I couldn’t resist buying her book, “Against Love Poetry.” It was years later that we went to Ireland. I had not revisited Boland’s world of words until today and noticed this poem about what happened in Kells long ago… thank you to Hoyt for taking me to Ireland!
Limits I
So high
in their leafy silence
over Kells, over Durrow
as the Vikings
raged south-
the old monks
made the alphabet
wild:
they dipped iron
into azure and
indigo: they gave strange
wings to their o’s
and e’s: their vowels
clung on with
talons and the thin
ribbed wolves
which had gone north
left their frozen winters
and were lured back
to their consonants.
Linda Goddard
Thank you, Charlene, for sharing this poem and Book of Kells and your experience listening to Eavan Boland!
And say happy birthday, belated to your husband!
See you soon!
Charlene Edge
Hi Linda. Thanks for your comment.
Ciao for now.